


Love Makes The World Spin Around

by Myrime



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Don't copy to another site, F/M, Family, Fluff, Iron Family, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Lives, career choices, dad tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-08-15
Packaged: 2020-09-01 10:40:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20256775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myrime/pseuds/Myrime
Summary: Morgan Stark is seventeen and smart. She could have followed in her father's footsteps and skipped some grades to go to college early. Other than her father, however, her home has never felt like something she needs to flee from. She has always been loved. Sometimes that makes telling the truth all the harder."I don't want to go to MIT."





	Love Makes The World Spin Around

**Author's Note:**

> Another entry for the [Iron Man Bingo 2019 Round 2](https://iron-man-bingo.tumblr.com/), square: Morgan Stark.  
Enjoy!

Morgan loves her father without doubt and she has never had reason to assume he does not love her either. Yet, Morgan has been standing outside his office for ten minutes, unable to go in.

It is a silly thing, to be afraid of a conversation. She carries the blood of both Starks and the legendary Pepper Potts inside her. Fear is not something that suits her, not without doing something about it.

“Boss is asking whether you plan to come in at some point,” FRIDAY speaks up, making Morgan flinch.

Considering that she grew up with the AI being a constant presence in her life, she should not be taken by surprise by a disembodied voice talking to her. It is all a question of focus, she guesses.

Instead of answering, Morgan gathers her courage and knocks on the door to the office.

“Come in,” comes the slightly sarcastic response from inside.

Her dad sits facing the door, immediately smiling when she comes into sight. He has gone completely grey over the past years, but his eyes never seem to grow old. They are still filled with the same kind of boundless love she has always seen in them. The same kind of inventive spirit, too. Her mum has bemoaned the fact that he has yet to spend any less time in the workshop. That is not entirely correct, Morgan knows. She stumbles over the two of them cuddled up on the porch often enough to know that her dad has learned to take breaks.

“Dad,” she greets, not quite able to pull up a smile of her own. The nerves in her stomach are making that impossible for now. “Can we talk?”

He sits up straighter but otherwise looks no less willing to listen. “Always,” he says and means it.

He points at the couch facing the desk, but when she does not move, he gets up and guides her to it, sitting down right next to her. Being this close to him does not actually make it easier to begin talking. Like this, she will see every bit of his reaction on his face, unable to hide from it.

Morgan Stark is seventeen and smart. She could have followed in her father’s footsteps and skipped a few grades to go to college early. Contrary to her father, however, her home has never felt like something she needs to flee from. She has taken her time, grown up loved with her entire extended family around.

But now she is seventeen and smart and afraid. Courage and rationalism are in her blood, but some things are harder to face than others, and the possibility, however small, of disappointing her father is the hardest of all.

Staring down at her clenched hands, Morgan takes a deep breath, then forces herself to look up.

“I don’t want to go to MIT.”

There it is. The words passed over her lips as if she has not been churning them over and over for weeks, months even. Now they are hanging between them, untouched for a long moment.

She looks very hard but does not see her father’s face changing. His eyebrow twitches a little in surprise, but his smile stays in place, never wavering.

“All right,” he says with the same nonchalance he uses when a design did not work on the first try and they have to try again. “I can imagine it’s daunting to think the professors might compare everything you do to your brothers’ work. There are other good colleges.”

Morgan does not think it matters where she goes. Everybody knows the Stark name. If not for the company then for the fact that her father saved the entire universe. That tends to be a recognizable feat.

“I know,” she says, then hesitates again and hating that she does. Her mother raised her better than this. “I don’t want to study engineering at all.”

The words feel like projectiles even though she speaks them softly, not wanting to hurt her dad. Although that seems impossible to avoid at this point. She knows he has had dreams about Peter, Harley and her pushing Stark Industries to new heights, to shape the future into something better than he ever thought himself capable of.

Well, Morgan is sure that Peter and Harley will still do that. They are already doing most of the work for the company, leaving Tony to tinker with his own projects, only speaking up when he thinks he has made something worthwhile for them to put on the market.

Only Morgan has yet to join their ranks – and she does not want to. She has known that for a while too, but thought the feeling would pass, leaving her not in the unfortunate position of bashing her dad’s dreams.

Tony looks confused for a moment, forehead crunched into a frown. “You don’t?”

He sounds so lost there that Morgan’s stomach cramps into a tight ball, threatening to steal her air. “I’m so sorry,” she presses out. “I didn’t know how to tell you, but now with you getting all the college applications for me I’m just –” She stumbles over the words, has to pause to swallow. “I mean, I can do a minor in engineering, but it’s not what I want to major in.”

Her eyes drop, ashamed of the way her voice has grown so weak, and unwilling to watch the heartbreak on her father’s face.

“But all the time we spent in the workshop together,” Tony says, trailing off. He sounds not yet hurt, just like he is still not understanding what she is saying.

“I know. I loved it,” she says hurriedly. Of all the things she had anticipated, she did not think of her dad immediately zeroing in on the fact that he has wasted hundreds of hours of guiding her through the work in the lab. “I really do, and I don’t want to stop building things with you.”

Some of her fondest childhood memories were made down in the workshop. Then again, she will remember her entire childhood fondly. That is the magic of having a loving family. Only now she is about to crush a big part of that.

“Morgan, honey,” Tony says and reaches out to tip up her chin so she has to look at him again. Even when his hand falls away, she keeps looking. His eyes are wide, not angry as much as almost afraid. “Are you telling me you were just coming to the workshop with me because you thought that’s what I wanted? Not because you liked it?”

All Morgan can do for a long moment is stare. The terror in her dad’s voice has her paralyzed. How is this what he took away from her refusal to follow his career choices?

“No,” she exclaims, too loud in her need to get it out. Softer but no less firm, she tries again. “Dad, no. Working with you is wonderful. The workshop is my favourite place in the house. It’s just –” She shrugs, feeling entirely helpless. “It’s not what I want to do with my life. I didn’t want to disappoint you, so I never told you.”

The ensuing silence is as absolute as it is short-lived. The worry does not disappear from Tony’s face, but his smile is back, less brilliant but just as honest.

“You could never disappoint me, honey,” he says, carefully intoning each word. Her doubt must still be visible on her face, because he shifts closer, takes her hand and holds them with an urgent gentleness. “I wouldn’t be disappointed even if you became an artist like Steve and spent the rest of your life drawing the same picture with the same three crayons. I mean, you’ve inherited my lack of artistic talent, so I’d recommend you reconsider, but I want you to do what _you_ want.” Without dropping the smile, Tony’s face becomes serious, leaving no room for misinterpretation that he does not mean what he is saying. “You’re the most important person in my life, and I will always be proud of you, no matter what you’re doing.”

Moran believes him, but she is not sure whether that is because she so desperately _wants_ to.

“But –” she tries to argue, not sure what she is going to say but convinced that she has to offer him a way out of the absolute statement he has just made.

“No buts,” Tony says, squeezing her hands. “I’ve got the boys to build crazy new things for me. And even without them, I’d never force you into a life you don’t want.”

“That’s – I’m –” Morgan stammers, but there is no escaping the fact that he means his words. “Thank you.”

Tony nods and lets go of her hands but looks anything but happy. “It feels like I’ve failed as a father if you worried about this.”

Her dad, Morgan knows, is full of doubt, second-guessing his every step. It never felt that way when she spent time with him because he was always her safe place. Growing older, though, there was no more hiding from the fact that he has a lot of regrets, a lot of untraveled paths he thinks about.

Uncle Happy had reassured her once that, no matter what regrets her dad might have, he would not change anything since it brought her into his life. Morgan is her father’s ultimate gift. As far as reassurances about being loved go, this left her with little to no doubts about that. At the same time, it also brought its own kind of pressure.

“You’re the best father,” Morgan says and she has never meant anything more than this. She cannot imagine she could have had a better life with anyone else.

“Well,” Tony says, his smile turning brighter again, “you’re the best daughter so you made it very easy for me.” They share a smile, and it is only when he keeps talking that Morgan realizes that her reasons to worry are not quite over. “Now, do you want to tell me what you’re going to do? I need to know whether I have to buy crayon stocks.”

Feeling heat rush into her cheeks, Morgan bites her lips. She hesitates, even though there is still nothing but warmth on her dad’s face.

“Medicine,” she says quietly, almost as if she hopes he would not hear it and not ask for clarification either. “I talked to Dr. Cho and she has agreed to let me intern with her over the summer.”

Medicine is a respectable field, she knows that, but it is one of the _squishy_ sciences, or so she has heard her father and brothers joke. It feels like she is trading up the chance to save the world, one genius invention at the time, for helping individuals on a much smaller scale. She has been taught to think big and it is like she is regressing from that.

She need not have worried, for her father’s face brightens further.

“That’s great,” he exclaims as if going to medical school has been the plan all along. “Helen does so much good. You will learn loads from her.”

He sounds genuinely excited for her, and yet Morgan has to ask, “You’re not angry?”

“Never.” Tony says, leaving no room for argument. Morgan wishes she had that much conviction for anything. “Well,” he then amends with half a grin, “who knew before me?”

“Mum,” Morgan replies sheepishly. “And Peter. They both told me it’s stupid to worry about your reaction, but that was easy for them to say. It’s just –”

Tony looks like he is going to have a serious conversation with his wife about this later, about letting him run into this without warning. But when he looks at Morgan, his face is filled with nothing but love.

“You will be the best doctor, just you wait and see,” he says, sounding like she has already done something to be proud of. “You will do more good in the world than I ever could.” It does not seem to matter to him that he brought half of the universe back from the dead, a feat that is hard to top. “Now, do you already have a college in mind? I’m afraid I’ll have to do some research before I can offer a meaningful opinion.”

“You’ll help?” Morgan asks before she can stop herself. Her dad does not look any less excited about the prospect of medical school than he was about engineering colleges.

“See if you can stop me,” he sniffs but keeps a close eye on her. “I want you to be happy. That’s all. The rest will fall into place.”

Finally, Morgan feels the worry sitting in her stomach dissipate. There is no doubt that her dad means what he says. Later, she will tell Peter and gladly suffer his litany of _I told you so_s. For now, she shifts forward, sinking into her dad’s embrace, his arms opening for her immediately.

“Thank you, Dad.”

Without seeing his face, she knows he is smiling. There is a warmth to his embrace that has her feeling like the entire world is rearranging itself to accommodate her, like nothing can go wrong.

“Promise me you’ll never be afraid to tell me anything again?” he murmurs into her hair. “I love you, Morgoona. I’ll never love you any less. Only ever more.”

There is nothing to do but believe him. It is the same for her, after all. In this family, no one gets left behind. They might be chaotic and messy and loud, but they all love each other.

“I love you too, Dad.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.


End file.
